According to The Verge, the terms of each “All-Access Plan” vary and an overall detailed report from Lyft has yet to come out, but prices appear to start at $200/month for 30 standard Lyft rides. Standard rides are defined as those costing up to $15 for each ride. Higher tiers are priced at $250, $300, and one for $400/month provides 60 rides.

Images of the ads for All-Access Plans promote “predictable pricing,” the ability to cancel anytime, and auto-renew payments.

Lyft CEO Logan Green discussed the new subscription plans this week, saying, “We are going to move the entire industry from one based on ownership to one based on subscription.” As is typical for these tests, it’s still unclear if and when Lyft will launch subscription plans for all of its users.

“We’re always testing new ways to provide passengers the most affordable and flexible transportation options,” the spokesperson said. “For the past few months, we’ve been testing a variety of All-Access Plans for Lyft passengers.”

Lyft recently expanded to Toronto at the end of 2017, which marked the company’s first market outside of the United States. Earlier in 2017, the ride-hailing company partnered with self-driving startup Waymo in an effort “to bring autonomous vehicle technology into the mainstream.”

The company has had an ongoing rival in similar ride-hailing app Uber, which itself trialed monthly subscription payments for its users back in 2016 but never launched the service on wide scale.

The next development in ride hailing services could be subscriptions, as Lyft recently emailed a number of riders invites to its "All Access" program. While the specific plans offered to each person varied, the idea is that by paying a weekly or mont…Engadget RSS Feed

By December 2017, drivers using ride-hail apps — Uber, Lyft, Gett, Via and Juno — performed 65 percent more rides per month than taxi drivers did in New York City.

The rise of Uber, Lyft and their cohorts isn’t exactly surprising, but even with Uber’s slowing growth, ride-hail companies very quickly performed about five million more monthly pickups that taxi drivers did.

Todd Schneider

In spite of its slowing growth and a steep but short-lived drop-off after the #deleteUber campaign, Uber alone is making up the majority of monthly ride-hail rides.

Starting in November 2017, Uber drivers performed more monthly pick-ups than green and yellow taxi drivers. By December 2017, Uber surpassed 10 million rides a month in New York City. Lyft hit just over 2.5 million rides a month that same month.

Lyft saw the biggest increase in market share after the #deleteUber campaign in parts of Brooklyn, specifically Gowanus, Greenpoint and Prospect Heights. The company doubled their share from about 15 percent to 30 percent in those places.

It also appears ride-hail apps are filling some of the gaps in the outer boroughs of New York City such as Queens and Brooklyn — a value proposition both Uber and Lyft have often pitched. Uber and Lyft are each bigger than green and yellow cabs combined.

Uber performed a little more than five million rides a month in the outer boroughs as of December 2017 and Lyft performed approximately 1.5 million rides a month, while green and yellow taxis each fell far below the million-rides-a-month mark. Ride-hail apps altogether perform 10 times more rides in the outer boroughs than taxis do.

Even in Manhattan, where yellow cabs have historically reigned supreme, ride-hail apps were close to surpassing the taxi industry by the end of last year.

Lyft is testing monthly subscription plans for high-frequency users, a sign that the company is shifting toward a Netflix or Spotify model for transportation.

The terms of the subscription models seem to vary, but appear targeted at users who spend up to $ 450 on ride-hailing a month. One all-access pass offered up to 30 standard Lyft rides for $ 199 a month, another was priced at $ 300, and another at $ 399 for 60 rides. Individual rides up to $ 15 were covered under the all-access pass. It wasn’t immediately clear how users would be charged for rides that exceed $ 15.

“We are going to move the entire industry”

Lyft CEO Logan Green mentioned these subscription plans were the future of his company during a press event Wednesday to announce…

Ride sharing platform Lyft and automotive supplier Magna have announced a multi-year partnership.

The goal is to fund, develop, and manufacture self-driving vehicles. As well as providing hardware expertise, Magna will invest $ 200 million in Lyft as part of the deal.

Following in the tyre tracks of ride-sharing giant Uber, Lyft made public its autonomous car ambitions back in May 2016 after receiving a $ 500 million investment from GM.

In July 2017 Lyft opened Level 5, a department dedicated to developing driverless cars. Since then, the company has announced plans to test self-driving vehicles at an ex-military base in California.

The Magna partnership can be viewed as another step towards catching up with competitors that include Uber, Waymo, Ford, and several other automotive giants, which all have established technologies in the autonomous vehicle space.

Lyft and Magna aim to be market-ready

The partnership will see Lyft continue its operations at its self-driving engineering centre in Palo Alto. Magna will take control of manufacturing and aid Lyft’s development team onsite.

Magna’s main expertise lies in manufacturing, vehicle systems knowledge, safety, and advanced driver assistance systems. All will help Lyft take its fleet of self-driving cars to market in the next few years, according to a joint statement from the two companies.

Lyft will provide test data along with its current fleet of vehicles to aid development. Intellectual property resulting from the agreement will be shared between the two companies.

Democratising access

“Together with Magna, we will accelerate the introduction of self-driving vehicles by sharing our technology with automotive OEMs worldwide,” said Lyft CEO Logan Green. “This is an entirely new approach that will democratise access to this transformative technology.”

Magna CTO Swamy Kotagiri said that collaboration is the most effective way for any company to get ahead in an emerging space filled with so many complex elements. “There is a new mobility landscape emerging and partnerships like this put us at the forefront of this change,” he said.

“Lyft’s leadership in ridesharing and Magna’s automotive expertise makes this strategic partnership ideal to effect a positive change as a new transportation ecosystem unfolds.”

Alphabet/Google subsidiary Waymo has already started tests with help from Fiat Chrysler, while Uber has deals in place with carmakers Volvo and Toyota, as well as chipmaker Nvidia.

Internet of Business says

2018 is certainly shaping up to be the year of the connected car, and the year in which driverless – and pilotless – vehicles began to make their way into the world in large numbers.

As ever, partnerships are critical to making it all work – indeed, they can help companies navigate through complex business and development challenges, just as sensors help their cars to navigate in the physical world.

But more importantly, this new deal reveals the hidden truth about ride-sharing apps, such as Lyft and Uber. In the long run, these ventures will have little to do with creating work for drivers in the gig economy. They are really about building out the infrastructure to support an autonomous, driverless future.

Secret location tracking, toxic company cultures, congestion problems, arguments with city mayors, and a near-endless list of business malpractices. Ridesharing apps haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory in recent years.

But that’s not stopped people from using the services that the companies provide. Uber has now completed more than five billion trips and is clocking up a barely-believable 5.5 million trips per day.

However, Uber is no longer the only show in town. The company’s business model has been replicated around the world. As a result, Uber’s market share in the United States declined by more than 10 percent in 2017. Today, it’s the most significant competitor in North America is Lyft.

But which service should you use: Uber or Lyft? In this article, we’re going to put the two apps head-to-head and compare five criteria.

1. Availability

A ridesharing service isn’t very useful if it’s not available when you need it, so let’s look at how Uber and Lyft compare in terms of availability.

Uber operates in 633 cities worldwide. That number covers a vast number of American cities, and more globally-renowned locations in Europe, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

In contrast, Lyft has traditionally only been available in the United States. It expanded into Canada in December 2017, but that’s the only other country it operates in.

Even in the domestic American market where Lyft specializes, Uber comfortably wins. It counts more than 250 markets whereas Lyft barely operates in 100.

Score: Uber 1-0 Lyft

2. Services

Sure, Uber started life as a glorified taxi service, but today the company has expanded its operations considerably.

Although not all the services are available in every city, Uber offers 17 standalone products. They range from the well-known offerings such as UberEATS through to the obscure.

For example, have you ever heard of UberAUTO (a rickshaw service in Pakistan), UberBOAT (a water taxi service in Istanbul), or UberAIR (an aircraft service launching in 2020)?

Lyft’s services are far more limited.

Yes, the company has been experimenting with self-driving cars, and it offers services like ridesharing and six-person vehicles, but it lacks the diversification of Uber. At one time, Lyft was developing a rival to UberEATS, but the plan met with resistance inside the company and was abandoned.

Score: Uber 2-0 Lyft

3. Price

Many people don’t care about riding in a top-of-the-range luxury vehicle or whether a driver offers you a bottle of water. They just want to get from A to B for as little money as possible.

Sadly, it’s not easy to make a like-for-like price comparison between Uber and Lyft. Factors like surge pricing, time of day, and even the city you’re in all have an impact on how much you will pay and make it difficult to tell if Uber or Lyft is chepaer. Things quickly become confusing.

However, there are some broad similarities. When using either company, you can expect to pay about $ 1 on average to start a ride, an average of $ 1.50 per mile, and an average of 25 cents per minute. All combined, you can expect to pay about $ 2 per mile with each company.

We’ll give the point to Lyft, merely due to its cheaper surge pricing system. Lyft will often go to x2, whereas x8 is not uncommon on Uber.

Score: Uber 2-1 Lyft

4. Ease of Use

@Uber your app was too confusing so I took a regular rip off NYC taxi. Fix it

If you’ve used Uber and Lyft, you will know the two apps function in a similar way. You tell the app where you want to go, and you’ll see nearby cars and a price estimate. Both apps also allow you to tip your driver and add multiple stops to your journey.

However, as Uber has grown its ancillary services like UberEATS, the main Uber app has become one of the company’s primary advertising tools. What used to be a slick and professional app has become increasingly bloated and hard to navigate.

Lyft used to trail Uber in the professionalism stakes; it appealed to a “hippy” crowd. But after retiring its famous mustaches a couple of years ago, it’s grown up and become more serious.

Again, we’re going to give the point to Lyft. Today, the company’s app feels like the Uber app did three years ago when it was in its pomp.

Score: Uber 2-2 Lyft

5. Controversies and Culture

Critics have accused both Uber and Lyft of destroying the traditional taxi industry with their ruthless approach. Typically, the companies’ modus operandi sees them enter a new market without the necessary permits, then use lobbyists to create a political storm if the authorities don’t grant a business license.

But regardless of how you feel about the tactic, it’s not technically breaching any laws. There are far more serious controversies; Uber has a charge sheet as long as your arm. Let’s look at some of the company’s more notorious incidents:

Throughout 2014: The company used an internal tool called Greyball to avoid giving rides to law enforcement officers in areas where its service is illegal. In May 2017, the United States Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into the issue.

February 2016: Uber driver Jason Dalton shot six people in Michigan while working. He continued driving and accepting fares while the police undertook a seven-hour manhunt.

February 2016: A former Uber employer who reported sexual harassment to her superiors was threatened with the sack if she didn’t drop her claim.

Mid-2016: Uber suffered a data breach. 600,000 drivers and 57 million customers were affected. Instead of reporting the loss, Uber paid a $ 100,000 ransom to the hackers.

January 2017: Uber was forced to pay $ 20 million to the US government after lying to drivers about potential earnings.

The points we’ve listed above don’t even scratch the surface of Uber’s issues. Of course, Lyft isn’t perfect, but it prides itself on being a lot less controversial than Uber.

Here’s how Lyft’s President John Zimmer explained the difference between the two companies to Time Magazine:

“We’re not the nice guys; we’re a better boyfriend. […] In our minds, there’s been a contrast in the values, there’s been a contrast in the type of business we’re building. […] We’re woke. Our community is woke, and the US population is woke. Our choice matters, the seat we take matters.”

Score: Uber 2-3 Lyft

Uber vs. Lyft: Which Should You Use?

As you will see from our running score, we’ve given the victory to Lyft. But in truth, Lyft only gets the nod because of Uber’s poisonous corporate image.

From a rider’s standpoint, no one stands out very much in the Uber vs. Lyft battle . Certainly, the difference is much less noticeable than it was a few years ago.

Some users won’t care about Uber’s corporate indiscretions. If you do, you should choose Lyft every time. But if you don’t, you’ll need to decide what’s more important to you: availability and services or cost and ease-of-use.

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Lyft, the main U.S. ride-sharing rival to Uber, says today that it passed $ 1 billion in revenue in 2017. And it says its revenue grew 168 percent year over year in the fourth quarter of 2017, almost three times faster than Uber’s reported 61 percent growth.

Uber, of course, is still much larger than Lyft — it generated a reported $ 7.5 billion in revenue last year and operates in many more cities and countries. While its fourth-quarter growth may have been smaller than Lyft’s percentage-wise, it was still almost certainly many times larger dollar-wise. Both companies are still unprofitable.

But the big-picture reality is that despite Uber’s head start, its early dominance, ability to raise massive amounts of financing, aggressive (often allegedly illegal) growth tactics, faster move into self-driving cars and everything else in its favor, it has not been able to destroy Lyft.

Instead, Lyft capitalized somewhat on Uber’s missteps and unsavory reputation, raised another $ 2 billion last year, gained market share, launched its first international market last year (Toronto) and seems poised to exist for the foreseeable future.